Movies based on a true story
Just as the title says. These are based on true stories Please comment if I forgot any! Thanks ^^
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- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.Inspired by Ed Gein, Norman Bates was a Wisconsin man who was arrested in 1957 for committing two murders and digging up the corpses of countless other women who reminded him of his dead mother. He was found to be insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution due to his obnoxious dual personality and this story became the genesis for psycho.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.The novel “The Exorcist” was inspired by an article about an exorcism performed on a 13-year-old boy in Mount Rainier, Maryland in 1949. The story’s details have been muddled through the years in order to protect the family but the exorcism was performed in St. Louis. Evidence points to the boy’s behaviour not being nearly as outrageous or supernatural as was portrayed in the film.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsMartin SheenSissy SpacekWarren OatesAn impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town, and her older greaser boyfriend, embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.The murder spree that makes up the plot of Terence Malick's classic debut film, 'Badlands,' depicts the real-life actions of Charlie Starkweather, 17, and his young girlfriend, Caril Fugate, 14, who together killed ten people in Nebraska in 1957. The story of Starkweather and his murderous spree throughout the heart of the American countryside has become legitimate folklore for decades, and it has inspired plenty of homages in art and pop culture.
- DirectorTobe HooperStarsMarilyn BurnsEdwin NealAllen DanzigerFive friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.The original 1974 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' was inspired by the notoriously demented serial killer Ed Gein, who killed two victims and proceeded to use the skin and bones of the deceased to make household furniture, skin masks and all sorts of other disturbing memorabilia.
- DirectorScott DerricksonStarsLaura LinneyTom WilkinsonShohreh AghdashlooA lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' is based on the case of a German Cathoric girl name Anneliese Michel, who suffered from epilepsy in Germany over 40 years ago. While horribly suffering through her vicious fight against the epileptic seizures that would take hold of her, two priests saw a far more sinister force at play. The priests believed Anneliese was possessed by the devil. To combat the possession, the priests treated the girl to four-hour exorcisms on 67 occasions for the span of 10 months. Ultimately, Anneliese's body succumbed and she died due to starvation, which led to the courtroom battle lines that were drawn in 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose.'
- DirectorGreg McLeanStarsNathan PhillipsCassandra MagrathKestie MorassiThree backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.It is the story of three friends who have the gross misfortune of getting tangled up with a sadistic backpack killer in the Australian Outback. The movie is very loosely based on two notorious Australian serial killers: the notorious backpack killer Ivan Milat and fellow Aussie murderer Bradley John Murdoch.
- DirectorAndrew DouglasStarsRyan ReynoldsMelissa GeorgeJimmy BennettNewlyweds are terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a large house that was the site of a grisly mass murder a year before.The film is based on a self-proclaimed nonfiction book describing what George and Kathy Lutz experienced during their four weeks in the house. Based on the story of George and Kathy Lutz, who buy a house where a man named Ronald DeFeo, Jr., shot his family to death a year before. While there, they experience a series of supernatural occurrences. Many people have encountered similar circumstances over the years and thus this movie gains its credibility.
- DirectorCourtney SolomonStarsDonald SutherlandSissy SpacekRachel Hurd-WoodAn invisible entity haunts a 19th century family, and family secrets soon begin to surface.Based on the legend of the Bell Witch, in Tennesse in the 1800s.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJake GyllenhaalRobert Downey Jr.Mark RuffaloBetween 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.David Fincher's brilliant 'Zodiac' chronicles the legendary real-life terror that consumed the Bay Area as the mysterious and terrifying Zodiac Killer amassed victims in the San Francisco area between 1968 and 1972.
- DirectorPeter CornwellStarsVirginia MadsenMartin DonovanElias KoteasAfter a family is forced to relocate for their son's health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, and uncover a sinister history.Based on the Parker family, in Connecticut in 1986.
- DirectorJeff GillenAlan OrmsbyStarsRoberts BlossomCosette LeeLeslie CarlsonA deranged rural farmer becomes a grave robber and murderer after the death of his possessive mother, whose corpse he keeps, among others, as his companion in a decaying farmhouse.Inspired by Ed Gein, Norman Bates was a Wisconsin man who was arrested in 1957 for committing two murders and digging up the corpses of countless other women who reminded him of his dead mother. He was found to be insane and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution due to his obnoxious dual personality.
- DirectorChris KentisStarsBlanchard RyanDaniel TravisSaul SteinBased on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left.'Open Water,' a little indie film that made a box office killing on a miniscule budget, told the story of a couple who were accidentally left for dead in shark-infested waters after a scuba diving mishap. In reality, Tom and Eileen Lonergan did, in fact, get left behind, having to tread the horrifying, desolate waters off the Great Barrier Reef in 1998. The Lonergans were never seen again, but 'Open Water' posits that sharks were responsible for their ultimate demise.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRoy ScheiderRobert ShawRichard DreyfussWhen a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.A series of shark attacks that plagued the New Jersey shore in 1916 inspired Peter Benchley to write it all. Over a 12-day period in July of that year, five people were attacked, four of whom died. A seven-foot-long great white shark was killed on July 14, and its stomach was found to contain human remains.
- DirectorAlbert HughesAllen HughesStarsJohnny DeppHeather GrahamIan HolmAfter five ritualistic murders are committed in 1888 London, Inspector Abberline's assignment is to investigate the "Jack the Ripper" murders. Along with a string of mutilated prostitutes, he uncovers a conspiracy involving the government.'From Hell' makes a hypothesis that Jack the Ripper was actually the Royal Family's physician concealing a scandal that the family would desperately want to keep hidden. In reality, Jack the Ripper (self-named because of his fondness for ripping his name from newspapers covering his crimes) did haunt the streets of London, killed women, was never caught, and - much like the Zodiac Killer - became a serial murderer of mythic proportions over the years.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsAleksandr AntonovVladimir BarskiyGrigoriy AleksandrovIn the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.Sergei Eisenstein's classic silent film based on a mutiny that occurred in 1905 during the Tsarist regime when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers
- DirectorAlexandre AjaStarsTed LevineKathleen QuinlanDan ByrdA traveling family falls victim to a group of mutated cannibals in a desert far away from civilization.The movie was inspired by the legend of Alexander “Sawney” Bean, a Scottsman of the 15th or 16th century who reportedly headed a 40-person clan that killed and ate over 1,000 people, living in caves for 25 years before being caught and put to death.
- DirectorFrank UrsonStarsPhyllis HaverVictor VarconiVirginia BradfordA wild jazz-loving and boozing wife Roxie Hart, kills her boyfriend in cold blood after he leaves her.Phyllis Haver plays Roxie Hart in this silent film based on the 1926 play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, which was inspired by the stories of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, jazz babies on death row
- DirectorMark PellingtonStarsRichard GereLaura LinneyDavid EigenbergA reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.The fear that consumes a West Virginia town in 'The Mothman Prophecies' is absolutely based on reality. After a Point Pleasant, WV bridge collapsed into the Ohio River in 1967, terrified townsfolk started coming forward to report they had seen a massive, red-eyed, black-winged "mothman" haunting the bridge far in advance of its collapse. The legend of the "mothman" spread, and people throughout the world had claimed to see the same creature at other notable disaster sites.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsAlbert DieudonnéVladimir RoudenkoEdmond Van DaëleA film about the French general's youth and early military career.Sweeping French epic recounting the early life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his boyhood through his successful invasion of Italy
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsJohn LeguizamoAdrien BrodyMira SorvinoSpike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.As tens of millions of living New Yorkers can readily verify, Son of Sam was a real-life serial killer who caused mass hysteria in the city between 1976 and 1977. Killing six victims and wounding seven others with a .44 Caliber, Son of Sam was ultimately determined to be David Berkowitz.
Berkowitz confessed to the eight shootings responsible for all the victims. He claimed that he had been ordered to kill by a neighbor's demon-possessed dog named Sam. Years later, Berkowitz changed his confession to say he was only responsible for two of the shootings that resulted in three deaths and four wounded victims, and the rest were committed by members of a Satanic cult to which he belonged. In 1977, Berkowitz was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 365 years in prison. - DirectorPatty JenkinsStarsCharlize TheronChristina RicciBruce DernBased on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.'Monster,' the harrowing tale of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, earned Charlize Theron an Academy Award for her mind-blowing transformation into a woman who was convicted of killing seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. The narrative of 'Monster' is very much rooted in factual events, including Wuornos claiming that each man who was murdered had tried to rape her while she was on the job as a prostitute. Wuornous was executed in Florida by lethal injection in 2002.
- DirectorRichard BoleslawskiCharles BrabinStarsJohn BarrymoreEthel BarrymoreLionel BarrymoreA prince plots to kill the mad monk Rasputin for the good of the czar, the czarina and Russia.Passion and politics in the court of Czar Nicholas II